The Sinclair Sisters

A bad day

St Petersburg, Florida
February 2007

Violet

"...and so, the prince and the princess lived happily ever after. The end," I said as I finished the Princess and the Frog. Vannah translated to Chinese for Essence to understand since she was still learning English. Koby sighed, "I wish things like that actually happened. And a prince will come and we'll live happily ever after."

"Yeah, but can you kiss a frog?" Jodi asked. Koby's nose wrinkled, "Probably not." We laughed at Koby.

"Okay, as much fun as this was, it's time for bed," I said and they all started groaning. "Please Vi, let's stay up longer," Vannah begged. "Yeah, we don't have to go sleep now," Tammi said.

I shook my head, "Sorry girls, but tomorrow's school. Bed, now." They grumbled but complied and after they were all comfortable on the bed, I turned off the lights and slept.

∆

I was having a bad day.

I dropped the other girls at their school, but couldn't make it in time for the bus to my school. I had to run to the next stop - that I also almost missed - but luckily reached it in time. Still didn't mean I got to school on time though. I was pretty late, but the teacher spared me. Then lunch came and I realised something.

I forgot my lunch at home.

Seriously, how fucked up could this day possibly get. Just before I could say the cliche 'This couldn't get any worse', it got a whole lot worse.

You see, unlike some of the Indians you would see on TV, I didn't have fair skin. I had a rich olive skin tone, almost bordering on brown, but that's not unusual in my country, there are many with that skin colour.

Unfortunately, a certain moron in my class by the name of Elijah, thought that it was weird that the Indians in his mother's soap had fairer skin while I had a darker colour. He thought I was weird, so he never failed to use it to tease me. On any normal day, I couldn't give a damn what Elijah thought, but on this irritating day, seeing Elijah marching towards me nearly made me growl.

Elijah Stevens was a short, chubby boy with blond hair and light blue eyes that would've been cute if he wasn't so obnoxious. He was spoilt rotten; word on the street said his mother had been trying for nearly five years to get pregnant and now that she had her son, she was ready to give him the moon if he asked. It didn't help either that his father was a wealthy real estate agent, who was never home, so mommy dearest was in charge of him. Mommy dearest was also a stay at home mom, hence why she had nothing better to do than sit around and watch Indian movies. Pathetic, really.

I rolled my eyes as Elijah stood in front of me with his smug grin, "What do you want Stevens?" He hated it when I called him by his last name, and I had the satisfaction of seeing him hesitate before saying, "Just wanted to say how bland your name is Abhi." I raised a brow. Someone learnt a new word over the weekend.

He continued with his pathetic attempt to rile me, "I mean there's Prinanka and Lashmi and Mavi but yours is so bland. Abhi. Really bland, nothing nice about it at all." This idiotic son of a bitch. I didn't bother holding back my scoff, "First of all, the names are pronounced Priyanka, Laxmi and Madhvi. Second of all, I get that you just learnt the word bland, but I don't need you to teach me how to use it, I'm well aware. And lastly, my full name is Abhinandana. If you can pronounce it correctly, I'll do whatever you want for a month."

He brightened at the challenge, "Say it again."

I smirked, "Abhinandana." He frowned, "Abhinada?" I rolled my eyes. His whole family was pathetic. "No Stevens. Now do yourself a favour and scram before I loose my temper."

He scowled, "Whatever, no one cares about you scum. That's why your parents dumped you. You're nothing but useless scum." I narrowed my eyes at Elijah and growled. Oh, it is on like Donkey Kong.

∆

I sat in the nurse's office as she wrapped my hand. She apologised as she placed a bag of ice on it, saying it would hurt, but I barely felt the burn. I've dealt with worse.

After Elijah ran his mouth, I proceeded to remind him why he should stay far away from me.

In simple terms, I beat his ass all the way to Jamaica and back. In a total maximum of eleven minutes, Elijah left school with a broken nose, broken ribs, one eye swollen and a fractured leg. What surprised the nurse was that the only thing I had to show for it was a few bruises on my knuckles and that came from using them to scrape the ground during the fight. Throughout the eleven minutes, Elijah didn't get a second to throw one punch back. Now, I should feel guilty, but I felt very accomplished. Showed him something.

What surprised me, was that while in the principal's office, although I said Julius was overseas on business, he waltzed right in like he was some prince or something. The nurse came to take me away while Julius sat down with the principal.

Yup. Definitely having a bad day.

In the end, I was suspended for two weeks and I wasn't allowed on the school premises till then. Julius didn't speak to me until we reached the house and he immediately dragged me to his office for my punishment.

I'll spare you the gory details, believe me, you really don't need to know.

Fast forward, part of my punishment was no dinner and to spend the night in the Cage. Now, don't be fooled, it's not an actual cage.

It's a large coffin, with only one hole for breathing and that's it. The point of the punishment is to agitate you, because the saying that cats don't like cages is more true than you think.

We really don't like cages.

In the morning, I dragged my behind to the kitchen to get breakfast, because God forbid Julius cooks. The girls couldn't speak to me because Julius was watching, but I could see the apologies in their eyes. Afterwards, I was allowed to go back to the bunker and I went gratefully.

As I walked down the steps, I thought I heard sniffles until I got closer and I realised that my hunger was in fact not making me hallucinate. But all the girls had gone, unless he had another lab rat.

I walked faster and saw a bent head covered in blue-black hair. I sat beside my newest sister and waited for her to notice me. She raised her head up and looked at me, a startled expression on her face. I cursed inwardly as I realised I still hadn't looked in a mirror. I must have been a sight. She had large green doe eyes, although that green was slowly turning to nice shade of yellow. Her long hair covered part of her tearstained face and her skin was pale. I smiled, "Hi." She looked shy, "Hello."

"My name is Violet. What's yours?" I said. She looked down, "Zhanna." I nodded, "That's a pretty name."

She looked at me from the corner of her eye, "You're the eldest. The other girls talked about you last night." I grinned, "All good things, I hope?" She blushed, "Yeah."

"Did they tell you about our names?" I asked. She nodded, "But I don't know what to pick." I shrugged, "I'll think of something. Are you hungry?" She nodded. I snuck upstairs and stole a piece of bread and some cheese from the fridge. I turned to run back, but paused as I saw a picture on the fridge.

As evil as Julius was, everytime he travelled, he always brought back a postcard and would stick it on the fridge. This was one thing I liked about Julius, although that didn't mean I had stopped hating the soulless bastard. This postcard had the picture of the Eiffel tower and I suddenly knew what name to give Zhanna.

I ran back to the bunker and gave her the bread and cheese. She ate happily. I smiled, "I know exactly what to call you." "What?" she asked.

"Paris," I said. She frowned, "What's a Paris?" I chuckled, "Paris is a place in France. It's very beautiful." She nodded, "Paris. I like it."

Someday, my sisters would see the Eiffel tower in person. And that day would be a very good day.